At a time when their candidate is going to need all the help he can get this fall, many state parties are struggling, unable to raise money from a demoralized and humiliated base, while many of the state organizations are carrying massive debts. Internecine squabbling and all those republican scandals have taken their toll as well, and coupled with Democratic turnout in record-smashing numbers, it has created a perfect storm and rendered many branches of the party irrelevant.
Across the nation, many GOP organizations are still picking up the pieces from the humiliating 2006 elections that saw the republican party hoisted on it's own petard, and prompting questions about just how effective the crippled and humiliated state organizations can be when it comes to delivering votes to their nominee.
But we aren't through with the schadenfreude yet. People are tripping over themselves to give money to Democrats, and McCain is going to face a better funded and better organized Democratic opponent who will be backed by an energized and motivated electorate that, for the most part, wants the entire republican party to crawl back under their rock and get busy evolving.
“After twelve years of being in power, you tend to get fat and lazy, and in some cases arrogant with respect to your positions,” said Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican party. “There is no doubt that we have had people who have gotten caught up in both illegal activities and immoral activities and none of that helps the party as a whole.Case in point: California.
“If you go back to 2006 most people would agree that not only did we lose our brand, that we damaged our brand significantly,” Anuzis said. “We are clearly rebuilding.”
According to data collected by the California Secretary of State's office the number of people claiming affiliation with the republican party has dropped by over 200,000 since the 2006 election cycle. At the end of January the state party was in debt, with $3.4 million in obligations and assets of only $3.2 million. Conversely, the state Democratic party had $5.5 million in the bank and a mere $83,000 in debts.
Ah-nold described the situation in Hollywood terms: “We are dying at the box office. We are not filling the seats,” and the star of the "Last Action Hero" should know from dying at the box office.
Across the country in New York, the situation is equally bleak. The 2006 election cycle saw the first statewide sweep by the Democrats since 1938. The Democrats are a mere two seats away in the state senate from having complete control of state government for the first time since 1934. A state Board of Elections report filed in January showed the Democrats in the catbirds seat, with receipts of $491,302 and a closing balance of $1.4 million. In contrast, the republicans took in a paltry $26,000 and had a closing balance of only $395,000. In New York, the parties maintain separate "housekeeping" accounts to pay for office expenses and party-building activities. The state Democratic party had nearly a half-million dollars in that account, compared to the republican balance of $66,000.
No one is pretending that the republican nominee will be competitive in either California or New York - but a less elaborate production of the same play is unfolding in Ne3w Hampshire and Arkansas. In New Hampshire, the state Democratic organization raised four dollars to every dollar raised by the republicans in 2007. According to the most recent reports filed, the republicans had only about $64,000 in cash on hand. The state Democratic organization had liquid assets of about $159,000.
In Arkansas, the state party is in shambles after losing the governors mansion in 2006, and the statehouse is firmly under Democratic control with 3-to-1 margins in both chambers. State GOP chairman Dennis Milligan said he is facing defections and malaise. “Independent conservative individuals just said they were fed up and they said there is no difference [between the two parties],” Milligan said. “We have sent out the message that we are now different. We know it did not fall down in one day and it won’t be rebuilt in one day.”
(Yes, there is no difference, and that is why the republican party is hemorrhaging members and the Democratic ranks are swelling. I would say it is more likely that the "there is no difference" strawman has been torched and people are waking up, shaking off their hangovers and getting over their misplaced, media-produced fit of pique.)
But then again, 'ol Dennis doesn't appear to be none too sharp, and words certainly are not his friend. He is the dipshit who said this at the time he took over the state party: "At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."
The outlook for the GOP nation wide is so dismal that state parties have started requiring loyalty oaths. Virginia republicans required persons voting in the states GOP presidential primary to sign an (unenforceable) oath that they would support the party nominee in November. They were just following the precedent set by the Kansas GOP, which started requiring them last summer, after Kathleen Sebelius waltzed to reelection with a GOP defector on her arm as a running mate.
No matter what a moron like Milligan might believe, there is a difference between the parties, and the American people have started figuring it out. Which is good news for Democrats and bad news for republicans. And it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of sociopaths. Now into the forest with you lot. It's sackcloth, ashes and self-flagellation for you feckless fools for at least a couple of decades, so be gone, foul neocon losers. And while you are down there, wallowing in your own detritus, do some god-damned self reflection and figure out where you went wrong, but afflict decent people no more with your fetid countenance.
